View Larger MapI was actually quite happy to leave Buenos Aires. It seems like a very
cool city and I'm sure that I'm going to enjoy it immensely when I return;
however, I'm not much of a city guy, and the crowds and people and general chaos
tend to stress me out. What's more, it's generally impossible to find a good
place to put your bike and you either end up paying a lot for a parking garage
or stress out about it being stolen from whatever hidey-hole that you stashed it
in.The most common way to reach Uruguay from BA is to take a ferry straight
to Montevideo or Colonia. However, I decided that I would try one of the land
borders a little further north. The ride to the closest crossing over the Rio
Plata was all flat, fast
autopista.I found yet
another name for a speed bump:Lomo de burro. Awesome.A little before the border, I ran into the back of a huge line of cars. I
had heard stories of this border being closed by protesters in past, and I was a
little worried that I was about to encounter a similar
situation.Being on a motorcycle (normal traffic rules don't apply ), I decided to ride up to
the front of the line and see what was going on. I found a few cops on bikes
about half way up and asked them what was going on. I couldn't really understand
them, so I just kept going forward. They didn't try and stop me, so I figured
everything was okay. As I neared the front, I ran into two bikers with Uruguayan plates. I
pulled over and started talking to them. Their names were Damian and Germain and
they were just returning from a 10 day trip to Chile. We hit it off right away
and were soon talking like old
friends.I was asking Damian about campsites near the coast when he invited me to
stay at his house in a small town called Rosario that was on the route I was
planning on taking! So cool! I love it when stuff like this happens.
The aduana and
immigration offices for both countries were both on the Uruguayan side and
eventually we were allowed to cross the river and get our paperwork taken care
of.As soon as I had "officially" entered the country, I added Urugay to the
list on my wind screen.That makes 15 countries on this trip if you count the
States.We left the
aduana and I fell in behind the Uruguayos on their sport
bikes.Luckily, they rode quite slow and I was able to keep up with them just
fine. We made it into
Rosario just after night fall and pulled up in front of Damian's house. Germain
said his goodbyes and went in search of a hotel. Damian and I unloaded our bikes
then rode them about five blocks away to his garage. After we had locked
everything up in the garage, I assumed that we were just going to walk back;
however, Damian pulled out a little 1986 50cc Yamaha scooter and we rode double
back to his house. It was quite a sight; two big dudes in full riding gear
riding this tiny little bike that's bottoming out and barely able to make it up
hills. Luckily, there isn't
a stigma against guys riding pillion in South
America.We made it
back to Damian's place, changed out of our gear and walked to a nearby roadside
food cart and got some milanesa and some beer. I tried to pay, but Damian
refused and told me that he was going to get it. What a
guy!We went back to
his place and ate. After we were done he showed me his lawn mowers (he called
them "yard machines") in the back
yard:I'll admit, the little conejos (rabbits) do a good job of keeping the
grass down. If I ever get a yard someday, I'll have to buy a couple of rabbits.
Then, when winter comes along and the grass stops growing, I can just eat the
rabbits....